“Building eco-responsive strategies to manage plant parasitic nematodes” Prof. Baldwin Torto International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, May 23, 2024 11:00 Semiochemicals mediate chemical communication and interactions between and within species. Examples include sex and aggregation pheromones that have been investigated and identified largely for above-ground insect pests. For below-ground pests including plant parasitic nematodes, chemical cues have been found to play crucial roles in host and non-host plant discrimination, essential for survival of various species. Understanding the nature and identity of these chemical signals offers opportunities for developing effective eco-responsive solutions for sustainable agriculture, especially for smallholder farmer productivity. In this presentation, I will highlight advances made in our group to identify semiochemicals that mediate specific behaviors in plant parasitic nematodes. Towards developing a resilient management strategy for plant parasitic pests, I will draw examples from our work based on laboratory and field experiments to i) elucidate the mechanisms of host finding in the root knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita, and use of non-host companion crops to suppress this phenotype in tomato, and ii) use of a biodegradable lignocellulose matrix to disrupt chemical signalling mediating host finding in the invasive plant parasitic nematode, the potato cyst nematode Globodera rhostochensis. L5 seminar room Technologiepark 75 - 9052 Zwijnaarde VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology Ghent University Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 71 - 9052 Ghent - Belgium Tel. +32(0)9 331 39 99 [ http://www.psb.ugent.be/ | www.psb.ugent.be ] Genome editing, cutting-edge technology for a sustainable agriculture